Take a look at the below video to get a sense of how to apply gopher baits successfully.

How do you choose the best gopher bait?

Make sure it contains a good attractant.If the gopher isn't attracted to the bait or lured by the smell or taste, he won't eat it. It has to smell like food.

Only use baits that have a history of success. Just because there's a new bait on the market doesn't mean it's the best, or that it even works.

Why should you be the beta-tester for the manufacturer? Let someone else have that role. Stick to the baits with a proven track record.

Another determinant is how much of a bait is required to kill the gopher. Once the animal is attracted to the bait, it should only take a few bites for him to ingest a fatal dose.

If it takes more than that, it tells you the active ingredient has been diluted too much. The animal will get sick without dying, then develop a bait aversion to that active ingredient anytime it encounters it in the future.

Finally, how long does it take the gopher to die once it's ingested a lethal dose?

Ideally, it shouldn't take more than a day or so. If it takes much more than a day for the animal to die, you're looking at another bad formulation.

Is gopher bait safe for pets and children?

If one of your pets or children eats some gopher back get them to a hospital immediately. Depending on the type of active ingredient, the packing may tell you to induce vomiting but don't wait.

Get them to the hospital!

To avoid a panic-inducing trip to the ER, store gopher bait where pets and children can't get to it, preferably in a locking drawer or cabinet high off the ground.

Keep them away from the area being treated.

Fence the area off if possible.

Otherwise, keep your pets on a leash away from the treated area and make sure your children avoid it too.

What are the advantages of gopher bait?

Gopher traps kill gophers. If you're using traps you'll have to handle their dead bodies when you remove them from the traps.

Since these are wild animals we're talking about, they could be carrying lice, fleas, or mites. They could be covered in excrement. Depending on how the trap killed them, they could be very bloody.

Bait keeps you away from all that.

The traps themselves will almost always have hair, skin, fecal, matter, or bodily fluid on them after catching and killing a gopher. You'll have to clean the trap after each use, requiring you to handle all those things on the trap.

Bait protects you from that as well.

Finally, any unused poison will remain in the tunnels beneath your yard, acting as a long-term deterrent to any future invaders.

If a foraging gopher comes your way he'll want to re-use the existing tunnels, where he'll encounter any leftover bait. He's foraging because he's hungry so he'll eat it and die, perhaps before you even know a new gopher is in the area.

Where in your yard should you apply gopher bait?

You need to bait inside the gopher's tunnel about 18-24 inches from the main opening in the mound. In order to bait you need to know which direction the tunnel is going.

Probe inside the mound opening to figure out which way the gopher dug.

An easy place to start is by looking at the mound itself. It's generally a rough horseshoe shape.

As the gopher digs into the ground he pushed the dirt up behind him, creating the semi-circle shape. The “open” end of the shape is almost always the direction the tunnel is headed.

How do you apply a granular bait?

You'll need a long stick of some kind to poke a hole down into the tunnel (a piece of rebar works great). Pour the granules down the hole into the tunnel, then cover the hole back up.

Also, cover the opening to the tunnel itself. This will prompt Mister Gopher to come to investigate and try to re-open it. In the process, he'll discover the bait.

If you have a bait applicator like this one, this one, or this one you can use the long rod on them to make the hole into the tunnel, then deposit the bait through the applicator.

Again, cover the hole you just made as well as the main opening to the tunnel.

How do you apply a block bait?

The first, and easiest way, to bait the mound is to shove a piece of bait as far into the mound as you can. Use a stick, or piece of rebar, to shove it back in there. Then cover the opening in the mound.

The second way will require a shovel. Blocks are usually too big to shove down a hole in the ground so you'll need to dig down to the gopher's tunnel to put the bait block in it.

Once again, cover up the hole you just made as well as the main opening in the mound.

Should you treat every mound?

Yes.

Gophers are solitary creatures except during mating season, but here can be as many as 60 of them in a single acre of land.

You need to bait every mound, whether it looks old or new. It's the only way to be sure.

Gopher Baits Reviewed

Below are the 5 baits we reviewed in our assessment. Take a look below for a write-up on each!

Cons

Amdro Mole & Gopher Bait

As long as you carefully follow the directions on the label you'll have good results, but the attractant seems a bit weak. If you're off target even a little, the gophers simply ignore it and keep right on going.

We also wish it came in a larger container. One pound of pellets isn't really enough to cover very many mounds.

Baiting always takes time and, in many cases, multiple baiting attempts. There just isn't enough here.